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Reverse Mortgages
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI had lunch with a friend today, who works with mortgages. She said that while for obvious reasons, not that many people are signing up for conventional house loans at this time, many are inquiring about so-called reverse mortgages. For...
The Free Way to Clean Up Your Credit Report
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAA client complained to me the other day about how she had spent months trying to have a certain entry removed from her credit report. It was a misunderstanding from the beginning, it didn’t belong there, and because companies use credit...
The Concept Time Value of Money
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI came across an interesting article in the newspaper this morning. Did you know that in many Muslim countries, it is illegal to charge interest when lending someone money? This got me thinking about the concept time value of money – in a...
How Much Is Your Time Worth?
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAA friend of mine, who is a lawyer, left work early today to clean her house before her in-laws were coming into town. With her earnings in excess of $350 per hour, I frowned and asked why she didn’t simply hire a cleaning service. No, she...
The Gas Issue
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI paid over four dollars per gallon at the pump today! While this may not impress Europeans, who have paid such prices for ages, the cost of oil certainly isn’t helping the US economy right now. Herds of people are making the switch from...
Good and Bad Reasons for Making an Investment
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAAt a barbecue last weekend, a friend told me about this awesome tip he had gotten from his brother-in-law, about a stock that was trading on one of the Canadian exchanges for only $0.20. As it would take very little for the stock to double,...
Tony Robbins for Your Money
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAOne of my friends has grown to be such a Tony Robbins fan, she now quotes him daily. I went over to her house last night, to watch one of his videos and find out for myself what the fuss was all about.I liked it. Even more so, I liked that...
The Financial Impact of another Child
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAMy nutritionist had a baby a month or so ago. She told me over the phone that she was relieved beyond words that her insurance company had covered most of it, because the bill for her birth and subsequent hospitalization added up to a...
Spring Cleanout of Your Finances
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAMy husband, son and I are getting ready to move to a larger apartment. I did a much belated, and much needed, spring cleanout of my closet this weekend to start getting ready. It got me thinking that while most of us do some sort of spring...
Ten Percent Off at Macy’s – How Your Credit Score Affects Your Finances
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI spent the afternoon shopping with a friend, and received no less than six credit card offers from well-meaning sales reps. Back home, three more waited for me in my mailbox. Frankly, it is no wonder that a large number of Americans have...
The Commuting Issue
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAThis morning, I was stuck in my apartment elevator for 30 minutes. I spent this time, of course, thinking about commuting and happy that my commute is normally only 10 minutes and involves no cars, buses, trains or subways. I moved my...
Inflation Risk
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAAs my job is to help people make their financial dreams come true, of course I subscribe to a myriad of newsletters on the topic. While most of them tend to feel like same-old-same-old, this morning, I came across an interesting article...
Feng Shui and Money
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAA friend of mine had a Feng Shui expert look over her house this weekend. She invited me to come over and watch. Tons can be done to attract wealth into your life, she told me. While I found the in-depth Feng Shui so complex and complicated...
How Much Shopping Is Too Much?
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAFlipping through the latest In Style last night, I realized how easy it is to feel that the price tags for the things magazine editors like to tell us we absolutely must have are out of line with our earnings. The consensus among those in...
Enriching Your Children’s Lives the Pollan Levine Way
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI just finished Mr. Pollan and Mr. Levine’s book, Die Broke. While I found a myriad of interesting points between the covers, one that really resonated with me was the way they turned the old-fashioned view of children and inheritances...
Achieve financial independence
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAMy brother and I had a long talk about financial independence last night, over the most delicious Crème Brûlée. I realized how much the two have in common! Both the dessert and the concept are things everybody craves – yet very few have a...
The right time to retire
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAWhen should I retire? a woman called me up to ask today. I found it charming; quaint, even, to make such a complex question sound so simple. If only it were so simple that I could just have spouted out age 65 or 55. Would not it be...
Renting vs. owning your home
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAMy cousin had his house appraised today, and he was not happy. Of course, he’s far from the only one feeling this way. With the US real estate markets free falling like rocks dumped from skyscrapers, an increasing number of people are...
Leave a legacy for loved ones
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAWhen should I start saving for my children? a thirty-something mother of two asked me today. Right now, I suggested. She looked puzzled. Wasn’t it a little early? They are, after all, only two and four. I told her that if she is serious...
Live a More Joyful and Prosperous Life
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAI read in the paper today that only about 20% of Americans enjoy their jobs, and even fewer feel they are getting paid what they deserve. As though this weren’t bad enough, a large portion of our precious free time tends to get eaten up by...
Create and preserve wealth
by Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFAThe one question I’m asked the most – three times today, for example – is: how do I create wealth? And once I have it, how do I hold on to it and make sure I never, ever lose it?Well. Wealth is – in essence – the difference between your...